how do I output multiple files with a heading for each one but without needing to page through them?

Question

I am running a file search command with ag -g foo and I'd like to see the contents of the files I find.

If I do ag -g foo | xargs more then the more command makes me press the spacebar to advance between each file, even though they are small enough that I could see more than one at a time in my terminal window.

If I do ag -g foo | xargs cat then I see everything at once, but the files are mushed together so it's hard to see where a new file starts.

Is there a way to see the files all in one scroll, but with a heading for each one?

Does this answer your question? cat files with directory. In other words, ag -g foo | xargs tail -n+1. — Quasímodo, Nov 02 '20 at 11:35
Similar: Cat all files in a folder including filename by using a for loop? — Stéphane Chazelas, Nov 02 '20 at 11:42
@Quasímodo yes, your solution produces very nice output! Fiddly to type, but I can make an alias! :) Please post as an answer if you like! — joachim, Nov 02 '20 at 13:35
Cool, glad to help. Nevermind that, I prefer that this becomes a duplicate and then people can go to the answer I have pointed you and upvote it :) — Quasímodo, Nov 02 '20 at 17:48

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 02 '20 at 12:21

2

You could tell xargs to add a header:

ag -g foo | xargs sh -c '
    for file do
        printf "====== %s =====\n" "$file"
        cat -- "$file"
    done' sh

Or, you could use a loop:

ag -g foo | 
    while IFS= read -r file; do 
        printf '======== %s =======\n' "$file" 
        cat -- "$file"
    done | less

(here assuming ag outputs one filename per line as opposed to in the very specific format expected by xargs).

edited Nov 02 '20 at 12:21

Stéphane Chazelas

544,893

answered Nov 02 '20 at 11:35

terdon

242,166

See also the -t (trace) option of xargs. – Stéphane Chazelas Nov 02 '20 at 12:22

how do I output multiple files with a heading for each one but without needing to page through them?

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